Six Flags sorry for shirt ban

A spokeswoman for the park said it didn’t realize the shirt was related to a military charity, | Getty

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | 8/18/14 9:15 PM EDT

TRENTON, N.J. — A former Marine who wasn’t allowed into an amusement park because he was wearing a shirt with a red, white and blue rifle pictured on it has been given an apology.

Mario Alejandro, who served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, received a phone call from Six Flags Great Adventure President John Fitzgerald on Saturday apologizing, and he accepted, NJ.com reported.

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Alejandro, a 33-year-old father of three from Woodbridge, New Jersey, said he went to the park with his family on Aug. 9 wearing the shirt, which was a Father’s Day gift and was bought from a nonprofit that supports Marines. He said a security guard told him the shirt, which included the phrase “Keep calm and return fire,” was offensive and he had to change it or cover it if he wanted to go into the park, located in Jackson.

“I told them [that it’s] not offensive, that it’s a military shirt and that it means something,” Alejandro said. “But they said, `I don’t care. Get out of the park.’”

A spokeswoman for the park, whose rides include the Nitro and Runaway Mine Train roller coasters, said it didn’t realize Alejandro’s shirt was related to a military charity, The Reconnaissance Foundation.

“Six Flags takes great pride in the various ways we honor, celebrate and support our military heroes,” spokeswoman Kristin B. Siebeneicher said by email Monday.

“I don’t talk about my service or brag about being a veteran. I even have two close family friends who didn’t know I was a veteran until this story came out,” Alejandro told NJ.com. “But when they said that my shirt was ‘offensive,’ that’s when things escalated.”